The winners of the 2006 Honens International Piano Competition, (l-r):

Hong Xu (third laureate), Minsoo Sohn (first laureate), and Hinrich Alpers (second laureate). As part of the Honens award, each laureate will participate in a music residency and have the opportunity to record a CD at The Banff Centre.

Photo: Monique de St. Croix.

Nando Parrado with Simone Moro at the 2006 Banff Mountain Festivals.

Parrado’s presentation before an audience of over 1,300 on November 4 was one of the most memorable in the festival’s 31-year history. His inspirational story of hope and survival against all odds brought the festival audience to its feet.

John Ralston Saul, Banff Distinguished Author, in conversation before a rapt audience at the 2006 WordFest: Banff Calgary international writers Festival.

Each year, The Banff Centre presents the Distinguished Author Series to showcase acclaimed international and Canadian writers and their works.

Photo: Kathie Stell, Pixforu.

The Walter Phillips Gallery exhibition World Upside Down took to the streets this winter with the Urban Indian Series, an outreach project featuring work by Terrance Houle and Jarusha Brown. In the series, Houle is depicted going about the tasks of daily life dressed in his powwow regalia, highlighting the perceived but far from actual schism between traditional indigenous identity and contemporary life. The images were featured on a Calgary billboard and on Banff transit buses.

Calgary students will have the opportunity to experiment with the art of comic creation this January, thanks to the Walter Phillips Gallery’s Comic Craze road trip. Calgary artist Eric Dyck will take comics and other elements from the Comic Craze exhibition to three Calgary schools, providing participants with the tools and inspiration to create their own narratives. The project is supported by TELUS.

Berlin multidisciplinary artist Stephan Schulz demonstrates his Param Param, Perim Perim – Meter during the Almost Perfect prototyping lab.

A joint venture by the Banff New Media institute and HP Bristol, the lab investigated mobile media, audioscapes, and responsive environments. Schulz’s project consisted of a drumming machine which, controlled by a GPS device, responded to his physical location by creating varying drumming patterns.